Triggered Email: Easily Connecting Brands and Shoppers

Triggered email marketing is one of the most effective, sales-driving strategies retailers use to connect with consumers. Through both mobile and desktop, there is an open line of communication that smart businesses leverage daily.

Not all emails are created equal. In order to effectively use triggered email tactics, customer action triggers must be prioritized. Extending these email conversations through engagement campaigns is critical as well.

What follows are six distinct triggered email scenarios that can be launched in response to specific shopper behavior.

Abandoned Cart

The cart abandonment email series is triggered when a known customer loads items into their cart but fails to complete the purchase process.

When sent within 24 hours of cart abandonment, these emails have been a trusty tool for marketers for some time, and for good reason – they work.

Utilizing a two-pronged call to action, recipients should be able to either return to their cart or clear their cart from the email itself.

Welcome Series

A welcome series of emails is key for informing and compelling new subscribers to engage with your brand, and most importantly, shop.

The first message should confirm that the user has indeed subscribed to the service, reiterate brand values and advantages, and give the user an action to confirm their subscription.

Follow-up emails from this welcome series can drive actions such as account creation and engagement with deals and promotions. The most important thing, though, is that these emails quickly build a connection between the brand and the shopper.

Nasty Gal does a great job of incorporating these key elements into their welcome series and leverages eye-catching photography to quickly draw the user in.

Browse Abandonment

Welcome series and cart abandonment triggers are rather straightforward. What do we do, then, if visitors engage with the site but don’t create a cart?No Cart created in the last session? No problem. Browse abandonment emails allow you to start remarketing to users based on the products and categories they interacted with on your site. Bluefly’s browse abandonment campaign includes product features, top categories, and a free shipping offer as an extra incentive to convert.

Browse abandonment triggers allow you to leverage email to start remarketing to users based on the products and categories they interacted with on your site.

Bluefly’s successful browse abandonment campaign includes product features, top categories, and a free shipping offer as an extra incentive to convert.

Recent Purchase

The goal of every retailer is not to just grow their customer base, but to keep customers coming back in to buy. Recent purchase email triggers are a great way to facilitate that.

One of my favorite tactics is asking for feedback on their order. This provides another opportunity for that customer to convert and deepens the connection between them and your brand. Nordstrom executes this well in their Review campaign, by providing a clear and simple call to action to leave a review, as well as providing product recommendations based on the customer’s purchase.

Nordstrom executes this well in their Review campaign by providing a clear and simple call to action – leave a review – as well as providing product recommendations based on the customer’s purchase.

Back-In-Stock

In today’s instantaneous digital retail environment, out-of-stock items will push shoppers away from your brand – unless they can be notified when these items are available again.

For popular items that you plan on replenishing, consider giving customers the ability to sign up for back-in-stock notifications.

Back-in-stock triggers will notify the customer when the style, size, or item they are looking for is available.

Lulu’s back-in-stock triggered email campaign combines an attention-grabbing subject line, bold product imagery, and an urgent call to action that combines to form a compelling campaign.

Birthdays and Special Events

This last triggered email campaign idea has less to do with a shoppers actions on your site, but more to do with the shopper themselves.

Valentine’s Day is synonymous with beautiful bouquets, succulent sweets, and romantic rendezvous. Everyone’s goal on February 14th is to impress that special someone, and people are willing to spend money […]

In order to cost-effectively operate at scale, an eCommerce platform needs multiple application nodes. However, with multiple nodes, there must be a mechanism to share certain assets – e.g. product […]

Let's discuss the next step in your commerce journey.

ABOUT LYONSCG

Lyons Consulting Group (LYONSCG) is a leading digital agency and global commerce service provider. From creative to technology to marketing, we offer a comprehensive set of services to help retailers and brands craft successful digital commerce strategies, put them into practice, and continually optimize them for long-term success. LYONSCG is part of the Capgemini Group.